Sentinels of the Rooftops
This Asiatic race was originally described
from a live pair kept at the British Consulate
at Shanghai. The birds died en route to Eng
land. Not even their skins were preserved to
become type specimens.
Certainly the subspecies, if it survives,
could evolve into a full species. It differs
markedly from the European
race. The bill is black, not red;
the eyes are yellow, not dark. It
is a large bird, with primary
wing feathers that show much
white in their webbing. Boyci
ana's behavior, however, betrays
its true blood relationship. The
bird greets its mate with the
same contortions and beak clat
tering as its Rhine relatives.
Having observed more than a
thousand white storks in six
countries, I had to complete my
education with a pilgrimage to
Hyogo Prefecture to see the Jap
anese birds. An English friend,
Stuart Keith, who is interested
in cranes, storks, and other long
legged birds, joined me.
We arrived in Honshu in the
spring of 1960 and discovered
that practically none of my Jap
anese ornithologist friends had
ever seen a live stork, not even
Hiroyuki Morioka, a distin
guished young zoologist at Kyoto
University. It takes about four
hours by train, he informed us,
to cross the mountains to To
yooka where the storks are. It
was off the beaten track for for
eign tourists, so Morioka-san be
came our guide and interpreter.
Once in Toyooka, we visited
the Stork Preservation Associa
tion headquarters. Mr. Tatsuo
Sagawa, the mayor of Toyoo
Japanese survivors of a
rare subspecies inhabit an
aerie made by men to save
them from dangerous high
wires near Toyooka. Only
20 or 21 black-billed, yel
low-eyed Ciconia ciconia
boyciana remain. In 1961
two chicks hatched, but
three adults died.
ka and also president of the Association, told
us that recently a male stork was found with
both legs broken, its tarsi almost in shreds.
Apparently it had been mangled by a rabbit
snare. As mayor, Mr. Sagawa could-and
did-decree that rabbit snares would hence
forth be outlawed.
C NATIONALGEOGRAPHICSOCIETY